Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Two Kurdish guerrillas killed in eastern Turkey

TUNCELI, Turkey, June 14 (Reuters) - Turkish troops killed two Kurdish guerrillas during an operation in Tunceli province in eastern Turkey, army sources said on Wednesday."After an armed clash between a large group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants and soldiers on Tuesday evening, two slain militants were taken," said an army official.

The latest offensive was launched after the killing of two Turkish army officers in a PKK ambush last weekend.

"The operation is continuing and a fresh clash could be imminent," said the official.

The last two years have seen an upsurge in PKK violence which had subsided after the 1999 capture of the group's leader, Abdullah Ocalan. He is now serving a life sentence in an island prison south of Istanbul.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for a separate Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984.